He spent the day with his wife Lori watching the Boston Athletic Association's 5K in the exact spot where the first bomb was set on Monday.

Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon yesterday, killing three people and injuring more than 140, invoking a scene of terror on a day meant for joyous celebration.

"It's just so hard to fathom," he said Tuesday, following a seven and a half hour car ride back to Harrisburg this morning. "We were standing in the exact spot, right across from the candy store and the running apparel store. That was right where we were standing."

It was the same spot where he planned to meet his wife at the finish line when she was expected to finish. But simple moments and fortuitous circumstances interceded, he said.

He put his runner's bag on the wrong bus, setting him back 15 minutes. He then helped a collapsed runner to an ambulance shortly after, delaying him another 15 minutes. His wife, he learned later, would finish five minutes earlier than expected, putting her out of harm's way.

Soon after these events occurred, he saw the first bomb go off on the crowded streets of Boston.

"I was walking up and all of a sudden, everyone comes running at me," Brulo said. "It was like a stampede. I had to turn around and run with the crowd."

Brulo spent the next 30 painstaking minutes looking for his wife. He sneaked into a medical tent, which he said was a "makeshift triage." he saw scores of people injured and hurt, bleeding and in pain.

"When I walked through this, I tried not to look, but some of the things you see you wish you hadn't," he said.

He searched at the finish line, but no such luck.

"I didn't find my wife," he said, "but then I went to the place where we were supposed to meet."

Almost a quarter-mile from the finish, he found his wife at a family staging area.

"I went there and was relieved to find her," he said.

The Brulo's didn't linger, though Albert did observe extraordinary service being done in the face of tragedy.

There was little chaos, he said, unlike reports of mayhem in the nearby vicinity. Instead, he said waves of emergency personnel worked in tandem toward helping victims and those in need.

"People say chaos, but it wasn't really chaos," he said. "Everyone knew what they were doing. The police, the volunteers, the emergency people, they were all very organized and helpful."

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